How does the average investor get in on venture capital investing?

She doesn't. Venture capital investments have high risk and low liquidity and cannot be recommended to the average investor. Moreover, venture capital funds typically do not register with SEC and therefore can only be marketed to accredited investors (individuals with investable assets exceeding $1 million or institutions with investable assets exceeding $5 million).

About the only way the average investor can "get in" on venture capital investing is through their employer- or union-sponsored pension plan. But even then, institutions typically have very moderate allocations to venture capital (a few per cent of the portfolio, if at all).

It is important to understand that venture capital is a game played by numbers. In spite of the fact that venture capitalists carefully screen companies they invest in, the vast majority of their investments does not perform. About 30% of portfolio companies account for the bulk of returns; the rest is either liquidated at a loss or sold approximately at cost. So it is extremely important to be invested in many companies (typical venture capital fund has between 30 and 50 portfolio companies).

Also, venture capital returns have a high correlation with stock market returns (venture capitalists often exit through public offerings, and public offerings tend to fetch higher prices during periods of high stock market valuations). Since most venture capital-backed firms list on NASDAQ, you can closely emulate venture capital returns by buying call options on a NASDAQ index fund such as QQQQ (right now, the longest expiration available is January 2009)...

Find an idea.

You need to decide if you want to be a venture capitalist, where you take strong companies with strong ideas but without the knowledge to get bigger. This is too expensive for the average investor. A venture capitalist takes small-medium businesses and makes them large businesses.

An angel investor is probably more what you are thinking. Angel investors find ideas that lack the organization to become anything. This is the money that goes to nerds in garages or inventors.

Both these investments have trememdous risk. Expect to lose all your money 90% of the time. 9% of the time you'll double your money and 1% of the time you'll make the cover of the Wall Street Journal.

Most companies with a need for venture capital need more than money, they need leadership and strong management skills. They are looking for someone who has been there before. Good Luck!

Do a google search on "publicly traded venture capital company" and invest in one of those.

My new book publishing company is looking for a few venture capital investors on a very small scale. Maximum of $10,000 and minimum of $1,000.00. I have 5 small investors at this point and am offering a return on investment in 12 months plus 25% interest and up to 4 percent of profits on what has potential to be multi-million dollar gross profits within 24 months.

If you are interested in more information, contact me at : bill@drycreekpress.com.

There are mutual funds & some close-end investment cos that do a bit of it. Not really something ave investor should be in but the old Nautilus Fund (a long-dead close-end) was loaded with Apple pre-public & made holders a fortune.

Average Investors doesn't have $10,000,000.00 USD